What. Is this still Phlebotomy? I'll admit, I had to do a double take, and check out On Thorns I Lay to see if this was still the same band... Sure enough, a few of these songs were used on their first full-length. With the name change most certainly came a drastic change in style. I sort of knew this was coming after their EP, but hey, what can you do, especially since this all went down in the mid 90s.

This would be a good demo, had it been a different band playing different music. I was almost shocked to hear this, so naturally, it didn't sit too well. The production value has been cranked way up; these guys must've started getting serious about the music they were playing and the direction they wanted to take. A lot has changed, most notably the vocals. My ears may be deceiving me, but it looks as if all male vocals were scrapped in favor of a variety of female vocals ranging from singing to harsh whispering (haha), to the occasional shriek.

The goth was turned up as well; however, still retaining the atmosphere from the previous releases, if not chippered up a bit with extravagant use of synths and flutes and other instruments. A lot of that spacey atmosphere has been lost in return for production. It was probably a good idea that they changed name, because what they do now just isn't Paralysis/Phlebotomy.